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Apple-Pie Eugenics: War Against the Weak
BreakPoint ^ | 2 Oct 03 | Chuck Colson

Posted on 10/02/2003 10:48:45 AM PDT by Mr. Silverback

See if you can guess the source of this quote. "It is better for all the world . . . [if] society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind . . . Three generations of imbeciles is enough."

If you think that this quote came from a Nazi document, you're wrong. It's from Oliver Wendell Holmes's 1927 majority opinion in BUCK V. BELL that upheld a Virginia law mandating the sterilization of the "feebleminded."

Twenty years later, Holmes's words were thrown back in our face by Nazi defendants in the Nuremberg trials. You see, while the Nazis' worst crimes may have ended at Auschwitz, they "began on Long Island."

That's the conclusion of a new book, WAR AGAINST THE WEAK: EUGENICS AND AMERICA'S CAMPAIGN TO CREATE A MASTER RACE written by Edwin Black, who contends that American "corporate philanthropies helped found and fund the Nazi eugenics of Hitler and Mengele."

Eugenics, which literally means "good birth," originally referred to the use of selective breeding to "improve" the human race. Of course, what was meant by "improve" reflected the racism and bigotry of the eugenicists. Blacks, Jews, Eastern and Southern Europeans, the retarded, and even people with brown hair were the targets of the "improvers."

Thus, between 1900 and the mid-sixties, "hundreds of thousands of Americans . . . were not permitted to continue their families by reproducing." Black compares it to "ethnic cleansing," and he's right.

The tools of American eugenics included forcible sterilization, commitment to mental institutions, prohibitions against marriage, and even dissolution of already existing marriages. One Michigan legislator went so far as to introduce a bill calling for the electrocution of severely retarded infants.

Eventually, American eugenics, with help from the Carnegie Institution, the Rockefeller Foundation, Margaret Sanger, and others, found its way to Germany. While "Nazi eugenics quickly outpaced American eugenics in both velocity and ferocity," Black writes, the connection between the two was never lost. As one American eugenicist told the Richmond TIMES-DISPATCH, "the Germans are beating us at our own game."

The Holocaust and other crimes of the Third Reich made eugenics a bad word, and the American connection was quickly swept under the rug. But the attempt to play God "never really stopped."

Today it takes the form of "human genomic science and corporate globalization." Instead of racist declarations, we have "polished PR campaigns" that hold out the promises of biotech: miracle cures and ever-increasing life expectancies.

While the word eugenics is never used, that's what it is. We are intent on eliminating "imperfection" from the gene pool. Even today, children whose "deformities" are discovered in utero are rarely permitted to be born. And as genetic technology improves, the list of those whom Black calls the "never-born" will continue to expand.

If the "abolition of man" is to be stopped, this story must be told. Christians need to pull the truth about eugenics out from underneath the rug and hold it up as a reminder of where playing God leads us. Six decades of denial is enough.


TOPICS: Activism/Chapters; Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Germany; Government; News/Current Events; Philosophy; US: Virginia
KEYWORDS: abortion; auschwitz; charlescolson; colson; eugenics; hitler; margaretsanger; masterrace; mengele; nazis; nuremburg; plannedbarrenhood; plannedparenthood; roevwade; sanger; thirdreich
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Comment #101 Removed by Moderator

To: Mr. Silverback
thanks for the heads-up...I just didn't catch it with so many threads to hit.
102 posted on 10/03/2003 1:35:17 PM PDT by VOA
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To: Zack Nguyen
Zack, there is no question that various governments are dictatorial to various degree. We were discussing the question of programs funded by the developed countries in Africa and Asia. The point was that they do not coerce.

You too have used the word "we," and that does not mean Mexicans.
103 posted on 10/03/2003 1:45:41 PM PDT by TopQuark
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To: TopQuark
Surely you know that China has a coercive one-child policy. Maybe you mean other Asian countries?
104 posted on 10/03/2003 1:57:16 PM PDT by Zack Nguyen
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To: TopQuark
Or do you mean stuf that is funded by America through the UN?
105 posted on 10/03/2003 1:58:02 PM PDT by Zack Nguyen
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To: PurVirgo
Frank J. Sheed was a street preacher in England who was made a Doctor of the Church, the only street preacher who ever was made a Doctor of the Church. He argued and answered the questions of the general public and explained Catholic theology to all who would come. His book, THEOLOGY AND SANITY is the best book I have ever read. His books can be found at ignatius.com(He and his wife founded Ignatius Press in the 1940's, they were good friends of GK Chesterton)
106 posted on 10/03/2003 2:00:00 PM PDT by RichardMoore
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To: MayDay72
Be that as it may, by your definition we no longer actually have capitalism. But we do have plenty of capitalists who make plenty of capital and who are "in bed" with Big Government.
107 posted on 10/03/2003 2:02:40 PM PDT by RichardMoore
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To: Desdemona
Yes, and G K Chesterton talks about it in EUGENICS AND OTHER EVILS.

He said that the Captains of Industry had decided that Industrial Capitalism was a failure because it couldn't afford to pay one man enough to support a family as large as he could have.

So they set about to encouage and promote abortion, contraception and divorce.

That is the Eugenic Society that we have today.

108 posted on 10/03/2003 3:04:13 PM PDT by RichardMoore
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To: VOA
thanks for the heads-up...I just didn't catch it with so many threads to hit.

Hey, I know that feeling!

109 posted on 10/03/2003 5:00:35 PM PDT by Mr. Silverback (Free Republic--Heartland Values, Think Tank Intellect.)
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To: GovernmentShrinker
Why do you say her "natural lifespan" (your quotation marks) ended a couple decades ago because she needs care almost like a small baby? What about old people who can't care for themselves? Or people who are sick and can't care for themselves? Sometimes people are sick for a year or two, and then recover. Is your standard of whether someone should be allowed to live that they are independent and need no help?

It sounds as though you are saying the natural lifespan stops when a person needs help. Do you admire the practices of various aboriginal peoples who leave their old people to die alone, once they become feeble?
110 posted on 10/03/2003 6:56:46 PM PDT by First Amendment
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To: Mr. Silverback
We are suffering from the malady of oversized government, which the Founders warned us about, early and often. If we waved a magic wand and changed all the retarded and handicapped folks to able-bodied folks, there would still be a massive underclass expecting government handouts, a massive number of working people whose vision of compassion involves a lot of people sitting at Formica desks shuffling papers, and a whole lot of politicians ready to serve those desires in order to gain votes.

If you think sterilizing a bunch of mentally handicapped people will get us out of the mess we're in, you're losing your mind. And if you think that elected public servants like say, Maxine Waters and Robert Byrd are feebleminded, then you missed the moral context. These people are not stupid, they are evil servants of an ideology that killed at least 160 million people last century. That's not retarded, that's diabolical.

I just had to repeat your statements. Absolutely true, and masterfully expressed!!!!

111 posted on 10/03/2003 7:00:14 PM PDT by First Amendment
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To: RichardMoore
Yes, and G K Chesterton talks about it in EUGENICS AND OTHER EVILS.

I actually got all my information from secular sources, but Chesterton is definitely a good resource.
112 posted on 10/03/2003 9:27:20 PM PDT by Desdemona (Kempis' Imitation of Christ online! http://www.leaderu.com/cyber/books/imitation/imitation.html)
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To: GovernmentShrinker
Without turning this into an "evils of welfare" thread, there is a simple solution to the crackhead mom situation - mandatory UAs/follicle drug testing before getting any kind of gov't assistance, and before every check is issued.

At one time, I was for forced sterilization. But I cannot in good conscience support that cause anymore, from a humanitarian standpoint. As much of a "burden" as the poor are, they have the same rights as you and I do.

After all, free will was God's greatest gift. It's what we do with it that is our choice. I personally do not want my exercize of free will to include limiting someone else's natural rights.

But as for sterilization of rapists and murderers -

I think the victims of rape should decide for themselves whether or not to abort. And murderers - if we upheld life with no chance of parole (not 15-20 yrs bullcrap), then obviously they could not procreate.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that autonomy should be the guiding principle. Your mistake=Your responsibility, not my burden to bear.

113 posted on 10/03/2003 10:26:40 PM PDT by PurVirgo (Here's a tip: Never weed eat the dogpen with your mouth open.)
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To: BabaOreally
Look, Lev. 20 states a course...shouldn't that apply here?

I read that chapter, and one thing I find interesting is that it's "instructions" call for a lot of stoning.

I could be wrong, but doesn't one of the Commandments explicitly ask us not to kill each other??

And another thing - "genes" are not an accident - If the Creator did not mean for it to be, then how could the gene exist in the first place?? Hypothetically, of course, given your set of argument parameters.

114 posted on 10/03/2003 10:36:19 PM PDT by PurVirgo (Here's a tip: Never weed eat the dogpen with your mouth open.)
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To: RichardMoore
thanks a bunch for the information - I will have to check that out =)
115 posted on 10/03/2003 10:37:48 PM PDT by PurVirgo (Here's a tip: Never weed eat the dogpen with your mouth open.)
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Comment #116 Removed by Moderator

To: jimt
The baby is dependent exclusively on the parents for survival for several years. Why not allow abortion until age three or four?

The difference is that usually before 6 months the fetus cannot maintain homeostasis outside the mother's womb. It would die at 4 months if it were taken outside its mother's womb. You could leave a newborn on someone's steps and they'd be able to take care of it just as well as the biological parents. Big difference.

117 posted on 10/04/2003 9:30:03 AM PDT by CodeMonkey
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To: pram
I just had to repeat your statements. Absolutely true, and masterfully expressed!!!!

Why thank you! Every once in a while I put the words in the right order. ;-)

118 posted on 10/04/2003 3:42:34 PM PDT by Mr. Silverback ("I'm a Neanderthal, y'all, I'm surfin' on the Net, I'm a Neanderthal y'all, from the 21st century.")
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To: PurVirgo
Thank you so much. I have been involved in a lengthy discussion with some fellow Christians who profess to believe that man does not have free will. It is exhsuting at times. So I appreciate a kind word when it comes my way. ciao for now
Rich
119 posted on 10/05/2003 12:00:00 PM PDT by RichardMoore
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To: RichardMoore
hehe - I know what you mean. If you ask me, Free Will goes all the way back to Eden and an apple, if you know what I mean.

Free will separates us from lower life forms. Mental Prowess as opposed to physical, choice over instinct. To deny free will is to deny God, if you want my (humble) opinion.

Hey, I appreciate a kind word now and then too, so back atcha!!!

120 posted on 10/05/2003 10:49:53 PM PDT by PurVirgo (What would you do if FR was no more?? Please support FR!!!)
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